Chris Jordan, a mother of seven children ages 7 through 18, has seen it all. Her kids have gotten assignments to make hand-crafted trading cards of endangered species; to embellish book reports with five-color hand-drawn sketches of the protagonist; to design a restaurant menu that might have been used in colonial Jamestown; to write a rap song about the elements of the periodic table; and to research, design and color a 30-square “poster quilt” about their family heritage. One of her friends, she says, had to drive her kid around town to be photographed in front of various businesses.

“One of the biggest challenges for me is not to be exasperated by some of the assignments,” says Jordan, a writer for AlphaMom. She sometimes yearns for simpler times, when parents drilled their kids on the multiplication tables or lists of spelling words.

Another mother said she feels like “a funding source” for her two high-schoolers’ elaborate projects, including purchasing posterboard and other materials recently to create a large diorama on the expansion of the American West.

Other projects demand speedy, ad hoc training in tech skills. One of my high-schoolers was required to research, produce and present a video on a favorite sports star or public figure. The assignment got done, but I’m afraid I learned more about using iMovie than my teen.

Teachers deserve credit for trying to design creative assignments that appeal to kids with varying abilities, including those who love art, crafts or music. And these challenging assignments may be great preparation for the jobs of tomorrow, when workers will need to integrate diverse skills to solve problems.

But they can be murder for the busy families of today.

Readers, are your children’s homework assignments becoming more complex or time-consuming? If so, do you see value in them? Or do such projects pile on so many complicated demands that they increase family stress?

Comments (5 of 45)

The homework is too demanding for the working parents busy schedules. Teachers appear out of touch. they need to make kid friendly assignments that don't involve countless hours and dollars of the parents. Please go back to regular old homework!

11:05 am December 30, 2012

libraryladyj wrote :

As an educator, the problem with assigning traditional reports like in year's past is the internet. We have to give more creative assignments otherwise student just copy and paste text into a word document. Don't get me wrong: even in the old days we plagiarized (but it was much more time consuming), or today teachers could just flunk students for copying and pasting. For students to authentically understand a topic, they have to make it their own--hence the more elaborate projects. I'm sure it gets overdone sometimes, but parents and teachers need to communicate. Parents also need to let their kids struggle and fail sometimes. It is a valuable life lesson.

10:05 am December 11, 2012

Jenn wrote :

My problem with the assigned projects is that it leaves little time for the student to do basic things like memorise multiplication tables or practise handwriting skills. I think that education has suffered from scope creep. The problem is that there are only 24 hours in a day and as nice as it might be to learn how to build dioramas, that time is time taken away from something else important. The result is that kids are overburdened, anxious, don't get to spend enough time playing outside, and their parents are hard-pressed to cook nutritious meals because they are spending all their time helping build dioramas and write book reports. I don't think that critical basic skills like multiplication tables should have to fit in the tiny spaces in the child's mind that are left after stressing out about getting their diorama done on time.

I would like teachers to keep the role of imparting knowledge, parents to keep the role of preparing their kids' bodies and minds for school via facilitating exercise and nutritious meals, and kids to keep the role of doing age appropriate work but also being allowed to have fun during their childhoods.

3:26 pm December 10, 2012

Teacher and parent wrote :

I see both sides of the coin as a 5th grade teacher and the mother of a teenager. I try to make the homework useful and relevant, but not so over the top that parents end up doing the work for their kids...that's when it loses it's usefulness/relevance. There is a big difference between "helping" and just outright doing the project/paper/assignment when the kid hits frustration level. Getting up and over the frustration point is where the learning piece actually happens! Let your children muddle through. If there is clearly no understanding of the concept, contact the teacher, get a tutor, or just Google a "how to" post...

9:46 am December 10, 2012

Shannon wrote :

I just remember when I was in school. I came home with an average of 3-4 hours of homework a night. I was in AP classes, so that was part of it, but still, I had homework, and it was not easy. I had to do the work for it. That did not mean that I did not get to spend time with my family. We did all the time. I am in my late 30's now, and it alarms me the way children are being raised. They are not being raised to deal with the realities of the world. Not everyone wins, and you do need to work to get ahead. These kids are going to be in for a hard lesson once they get into college.

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